February 29th
by OwlsWingProductions
Summary: "We couldn't let this day pass without doing something special! It's your Birthday! And it only happens once every four years so we had to make it even more special!" (A short spin-off of my Hogwarts AU for The Big Four (rotbtd) No Pairings.)
**AN:** So, in my Hogwarts AU a lot of people have been asking about Hiccup, and what's gonna happen with... All that. And since It's Hiccups _actual,_ **Canonical _Birthday!_** I decided to do a little something special for everyone. Happy Birthday, you adorable little viking! Here's a small peek into Hiccup's mind as I imagine it...

* * *

 **February 29**

Jack woke up early that morning, excited for a new day. The sky was still dark, but the stars had vanished and a deep purple-pink color was spreading across the horizon as dawn reached out in every direction from the rising sun.

Jack moved quickly down the long corridors of the castle, a bag full of unknown items at his side, and he grinned widely as he thought of how great that day was going to be.

Looking down at the map he had drawn on the back of his hand, his eyes widened. Jack looked up quickly and saw a tapestry just a few feet ahead, just as he had noted on his little map, and he lunged forward, ducking behind the cloth into a hidden niche behind it.

He heard footsteps walk slowly by the tapestry, a faint whistling that probably kept the Prefect entertained as he made his rounds came from the other side, and Jack poked his head out the moment he heard the older student make his or her way around the corner.

Jack snickered quietly and hurried on his way.

* * *

Across the castle, in a tower filled with red and gold, Merida was waking up. She sat up in bed, her wildly curly hair all about her, and smiled at the brightening sky outside. She jumped out of bed and knelt down, getting her night gown dusty and filthy as she reached underneath her bed and pulled out a package.

She dusted off the top with her hand and then rushed to get dressed, but took care to do it quietly so as not to wake the other girls in her dormitory. The other students probably wouldn't care much about her leaving the dorms so early, even the teachers didn't mind so much because plenty of older students woke early to go to the library, but Merida didn't want to take even the slightest of chances of anything going wrong.

Once she was dressed, Merida tiptoed down the stairs and through the common room until she reached the door. Pulling it open as slowly and quietly as possible, she slipped outside and then eased the door shut behind her, the package tucked safely into her school bag.

Making her way down the ever-changing stairs, Merida couldn't help but smile. Today was going to be a good day.

* * *

Down in the bustling warmth of the kitchen, Rapunzel smiled sweetly as the House Elves handed her a try with four Cauldron Cakes on it. She took it gratefully, and thanked the Elves profusely for their help as they blushed and hurried back to their work of preparing breakfast for the whole school.

Rapunzel skipped from the kitchen and up the stairs from the cozy basement. She made her way towards the familiar Great Hall and smiled when she saw that Jack and Merida were already there, waiting for her at the Ravenclaw table.

There were only a couple of other people in the hall besides them, seventh-years that were up early to study for their first tests of the year and a teacher completing their round of the nightly patrol.

Rapunzel hurried over to Jack and Merida, and placed the tray with the Cauldron Cakes on the table between the two. "I'm glad you're both here!" She smiled happily. "The Elves were more then willing to help once I explained what we were trying to do."

"Fantastic! Let's hurry and get this finished before the other students start waking up and coming in here. We wouldn't want anyone to ruin the surprise." Merida said, resting a hand on the package that was laying on the table.

"Yeah, I made sure to grab everything we needed!" Jack added, holding up a medium sized bag full of who-knows-what.

Rapunzel giggled and nodded excitedly. "Hopefully we can finish it before anyone else gets here." She agreed as Jack placed the bag on the table and opened it.

Rapunzel pulled out a small box from the bag and grinned at it as the content inside rattled muffledly through the thin cardboard. Today was going to be amazing.

* * *

Hiccup woke up that morning feeling even more tired than when he went to bed, and he had a particularly nasty migraine that throbbed horribly when the wood in the tower gave a soft creak. His ears were extremely sensitive, and it made him dread opening his eyes, but he forced them open into tiny slits anyways just to see if he could.

His half-closed eyes flicked lazily towards the window where the golden light of the morning sun was seeping into the room, washing it in pale-gold light. Hiccup snorted softly with annoyance and snuggled deeper into the warmth of his blankets.

He didn't want to get up, didn't even want to move, but it was Monday and he had Transfiguration at eight. Not that the class itself was much motivation to him anyways, he could probably just tell Professor Sandman he wasn't feeling well and skip all of his classes all together. It wouldn't even be a lie. Hiccup genuinely felt like crap. Sure, he felt this way all the time, but it's not like anyone else knew that.

Besides, the teachers wouldn't care! Honestly, Hiccup could probably take the final exams for all of his classes right now and pass with perfect scores in all of them. No more dealing with stupidly easy classes and homework. He'd be able to sleep in and relax. But then the teachers would want to push him up a few years, which would mean even more stupid classes and he wouldn't even have his friends around to make them fun.

In all manner of the truth, the only reason Hiccup didn't completely retract into himself was because of Jack, Merida, and Rapunzel. They were his closest friends, and they meant everything to him.

The throbbing in his migraine softened just a bit and his eyes fluttered open again. He looked out the window again and saw the sun peeking over the walls and towers of the castle. If he didn't get up soon, he would miss the morning announcements before breakfast.

It was the thought of missing a meal time with Merida, Rapunzel, and Jack that finally got him out of bed. Not that he would eat much of anything, his migraine made him want to vomit as it was, but his friends would worry about him if he didn't turn up.

Hiccup smiled as he pulled on his white shirt, thinking of how Rapunzel would continuously ask him if he was hungry all through Transfiguration that morning if he skipped breakfast, and Jack and Merida would both offer him some of the snacks that they sneak into their classes.

Once he was fully clothed, Hiccup made his way down the stairwell from the Ravenclaw tower. His footsteps would have been entirely silent if it weren't for the dress shoes required for the school uniform. The clicks of his shoes sounded like echoing claps in his ears, and it took a little more than he had expected to not flinch with each of the sounds.

When he finally managed to make his way to the Great Hall, a new wave of nausea hit him as all of his senses went on high alert, absorbing every sound, smell, and sight that they possibly could. Talking, whispering, laughing, burps, coughs, sneezes, chewing, gulps, scraping cutlery, clanking dishes, rustling clothes as people moved about. His ears picked up on every little thing and the mixture of sounds with the overpowering scents of all the foods and all the people and owls and the one cat that had been there six hours ago chasing a rather plump mouse from the smell of it all made his head spin and throb. His eyes clouded and everything was fuzzy for a moment, so he closed his eyes and tried to get himself under control.

His heartbeat felt like a rabbit was slamming it's foot against his ribs in an attempt to escape, and he suddenly found it a bit harder to breathe. His face felt hot as he tried to take deep breaths. He wouldn't - he couldn't - lose it here. Not in front of everyone. They would think he was weird.

Unable to tell a difference with his eyes closed, Hiccup opened them and found that every color had become more vivid, punctuated, and bright. He looked at the dais and realized he could see a speck of dust on Professor Doppler's shoulder, and that Ms. Carver's, who Professor Doppler was speaking to, heartbeat was a relaxing seventy-two beats per minute.

Hiccup slammed his eyes shut again. He couldn't do this. He needed to leave. He was going back to the Ravenclaw tower, back to bed, where everything was quiet and peaceful and - _Pain!_

"Hiccup!"

A hellish palpitation from his migraine caused Hiccup to choke down the panic that was rising up his throat like bile, and he turned around, following the sound of Merida's voice until he found where his friends were waiting for him. They were all standing beside the Ravenclaw table, looking at him.

Somehow, everything was suddenly just a little bit better. He still had a migraine, and the noise of the Great Hall was still making him nauseous, but somehow he smiled a small, natural smile. He felt genuinely happy, and moved towards his friends.

"Happy Birthday, Hiccup!" Jack, Merida, and Rapunzel suddenly exclaimed once he was in front of them. They stepped aside to reveal a tray with four Cauldron Cakes on it, his favorite, and one of them had a single candle that was lit and on it, written clumsily in frosting, was 'Happy Birthday'. The other three cakes had 29 written across them with them same frosting.

Hiccup blinked, surprised. His twelfth, or, more accurately, his fourth, Birthday. He had forgotten...

He looked up at Merida, Jack, and Rapunzel, feeling shocked and slightly embarrassed and loved. They beamed back at him, excited for the day of his birth.

...But they hadn't.

"Y-you remembered..." He stuttered out, unsure of how to express how happy and grateful he was to have them as his friends.

"Well, of course we did!" Merida laughed, as she lightly punched his arm. "We've been planning this for weeks!"

"We couldn't let this day pass without doing something special! It's your Birthday! And it only happens once every four years so we had to make it even more special!" Jack said, wrapping an arm around Hiccup's neck and giving him an affectionate noogie.

Rapunzel giggled and pulled him out of Jack's hold, leading him back towards the Cauldron Cakes. "Come on, Hiccup!" She smile brightly as she took a step back to join Jack and Merida in watching him. "Make a wish!"

Hiccup looked at them, his head suddenly and strangely clear. No migraine, no noise, no pain. Just them. Him and his friends. His heart felt light and happy. Looking at them, he didn't know what to wish for because he already had more than he could ever hope for. He thought for a moment, still looking at them, and then smiled.

He turned, closed his eyes, and quickly blew out the candle.

 _"I wish that one day I'll be good enough to deserve their friendship."_

Rapunzel clapped, jumping up and down, as Merida and Jack hurried forward and pulled out three packages from underneath the table.

"Time for presents!" Rapunzel announced as Merida shoved the first one into his hands. Hiccup looked at it, wide-eyed, and quickly began to protest.

"You guys didn't have to get me -"

"If you have to say anything then just say 'thank you'." Jack interrupted, smiling at him. Hiccup looked at each of them and then down at the present.

He smiled widely and ripped the paper, making his friends cheer. Merida had given him a book on Ancient Gaelic because Hiccup had told her a few months ago that he was interested in learning the language. Rapunzel had given him a jar full of ink, explaining that it was very nice for certain painting styles and she thought he might like to try it for himself. And lastly, but certainly far from the least, Jack had given him a simple, wooden pipe flute. A single pipe with holes evenly spaced along the top so that when you blew into one end you could play different notes, and leather strings were tied around an ornament with paw-prints painted onto it.

By the time the presents had been opened and all of the Cauldron Cakes had been eaten, students were beginning to file out of the Great Hall to their first classes of the day, but the four paid them no mind. They intended to enjoy every second of Hiccup's birthday celebration.

When they finally did start to gather their things so they could head off, Hiccup didn't dread the thought of going to his classes as he had that morning when he first woke.

Hiccup straightened as he pulled his school bag's strap onto his shoulder, and he looked over at his friends as they laughed and smiled. He got to spend his birthday, inside and outside of classes, with the three most incredible people he had ever met, and he would be forever grateful for that.

So, despite the stupid classes, the annoying homework, the endless migraines, and the bad mornings, that day turned out to be pretty amazing after all.


End file.
